Lion King 2: Naruto Style
by worlds-darkness
Summary: Sequel to my other story "Lion King: Naruto Style". Naruto is now Hokage, married to Hinata and raising a child, can Naruto protect her from the dangers of the world? Or will the dangers find her?
1. A Princess Is Born

**A PRINCESS IS BORN**

"Outta the way, outta the way! Lemme through!" A frantic blond rushed through roads of the village known as the village hidden in the leaf. He was pushing frantically through the ever gathering crowd at the base of the Hokage's tower.

"You're late!" A woman exclaimed to the blond as he burst past her, shaking her head.

"I know, I know!" He called back but kept his eyes on the hallway in front of him. Despite the blonde's frantic movements it was hard to miss the huge grin that ran across his face. A grin that all the village people had started off despising but learned to love and cherish.

"Fashionably late as always, Lord Hokage." A calm voice came for a silver haired man standing by a dark red door with a mask across his lower face and headband covering one eye. He leaned over and opened the door for the blond who just smiled and walked through.

"Naruto you block head!" A large fist came crashing down on the blonde's head before he even made it into the room causing him to fall face first into the floor.

"Dammit what was that for, Temari!" He sat up and rubbed his now throbbing head, glaring at his adoptive sister. She returned his look with equal, if not more fire than he ever could which caused him to laugh nervously and quickly get to his feet.

"You're late." The blond girl stated matter of factly.

"You don't think I know that?"

"Only you would be late to the birth of your own child." Naruto rolled his eyes at his adoptive sister, reached up to straighten his leaf ninja headband before walking calming into the room.

There lying on the bed, a light sheen of sweat across her brow and holding a small bundle of blankets lovingly was his gorgeous wife, Hinata.

"You... made it."

"Of course I did who do you think I am, Shikamaru?"

Naruto had to suddenly duck a clubbing blow from his adoptive sister at the insult of her lover, he never really understood how they attracted each other. Shikamaru often complained to him that Temari was so "bossy, scary and how much like his mother she was" in which Naruto would always reply with the question; "then why are you with her?"

Shikamaru would always stare off into the distance for a moment as if thinking about the question however Naruto found he always came up with the same answer. "It would be such a drag to leave her."

Hinata giggled at the antics of the adoptive siblings before unravelling the small bundle and presented the child to it's father. Naruto smiled widely and took it in his arms.

"Aw ain't that cute! I'll bet he'll he a great ninja too just like his dad and we can train him and everything!" Kankuro exclaimed rather loudly causing the young child to stir and stare at him with wide green eyes.

"It's a girl you idiot!" Temari exclaimed and much like she attempted with Naruto, she clubbed her brother right on the head.

"A girl?" Naruto turned to his wife for confirmation and when she nodded a huge smile grew across his face and he looked down upon her. She stared up at him with curious eyes and slowly reached out with her tiny hand to take hold of his finger that he was tickling her chin with. "She's beautiful."

"We still have to name her." Hinata whispered.

"Hm... what about -"

"Don't you **dare** say 'Ramen'." Kakashi spoke for the first time since Naruto had gotten there, the blond Hokage glanced at the copy ninja with a frown.

"Why not?" He asked accusingly.

"**Your** father might have named **you **after a food but there is no way I am letting it happen again. Plus I don't think Hinata's father would be all that happy to find out his granddaughter was named after her father's favourite dish." Naruto visibly paled at the mention of his father - in - law.

It wasn't that Hiashi disapproved of him, no it was quite the opposite, Naruto had heard that he often bragged that his daughter was married to the current Hokage. No what Naruto didn't like about the man was how he belittled Hinata every chance he got, taking every chance he could to warn her to "stay out of Naruto's way" or "just make him happy and do what he tells you".

Naruto didn't like being able to tell Hinata what to do, she was her own person and he didn't want to control her any more than he wanted to go back to the time in his life where he was not with her. His wife for a long time seemed to take her father's words to heart, doing everything she thought the perfect housewife would do for their husband, even going so far as to say she was giving up being a shinobi all together.

Naruto and Neji spent the next three days convincing her that she was an excellent shinobi and that her father would not be happy either way because there was simply no way to please the old man. Hinata was however not convinced until finally Naruto took drastic measures and full out attacked her, forcing her to fight him one day in the training grounds.

The fight was phenomenal and by the end of it they had quite a crowd watching, Naruto had won but he did mention to Hinata over and over again that the only reason he did was because she had run out of chakra before he did and that had he not had his nine tailed beast he definitely would have fallen victim to her byakugan and graceful fighting method.

From that day on Hinata seemed to become less and less concerned about what her father wanted from her and more focused on what she wanted, she still treated Hiashi like she always had, with respect, but she never took any of his insults or 'advice' to heart anymore. Instead she focused more on spending time with her cousin and little sister. As far as she was concerned, Hinabi could be the heiress if she wished, Hinata just didn't care she was with the man she loved and had a family now.

"Why... does my daughter have **pink** hair?" Naruto suddenly asked.

"Um... perhaps the... mix between blue and blond produced pink?" Hinata suggested as she glanced at the small tuft of pink hair on her daughter's head.

"Ahem, Naruto it is time to present your child to the village." Iruka stated as he came up behind his ex student. Naruto turned to him and nodded before turning back to his wife.

"So before we do it, what shall we name her?" He asked her and Hinata thought for a moment.

"How about Kushina?"

"You want to name her after my mother?"

Naruto was shocked at this and Hinata gave him a small, shy smile. The Hokage shook his head though.

"What about... Sakura?" He suggested as he looked to the side. Hinata followed his gaze to the vase of sakura blossoms by her bed and watched as her husband reached for one of the delicate flowers and placed it behind his daughter's ear.

"Sakura is a lovely name." Hinata replied.

"Alright then, come with me young Sakura."

Naruto handed his young daughter over to Iruka and then proceeded to help his wife out of bed, Kakashi stared at the sight for a moment and remembered a time when he did something similar for Minato and Kushina when Naruto was born, the big ceremony and the showing of Naruto to the village.

Kakashi took the small child from Iruka and walked out onto the balcony followed by Iruka, Hinata and Naruto. The whole town cheered at the sight of their beloved Hokage and his family, Naruto smiled and waved a little while his shy wife stood behind him and hugged his long Hokage robes.

Kakashi cleared his voice and prepared to say a line he had only said once before but could remember it as if he said it every single day of his life. He held young baby Sakura up, who was now attempting to munch on the flower that her father had put behind her ear.

"I present to you, Sakura Uzumaki! Your future Hokage."

The masked ex ANBU presented the child to the citizens of Konoha and they cheered just as they had when Naruto was presented. The Hokage then took the stand and looked down upon his people, he saw his many friends among the crowd, Neji, Shikamaru and Shino to name a few. A small breeze swirled around the young girl carrying blossoms and leaves with it that she tried to reach out and catch with her tiny hands.

"Thank you all for coming out to see my beautiful daughter. I promise I shall do right by my people, my parents and by Sakura and raise her to the best of my ability so she can grow and learn to be worthy Hokage." Naruto was a fine public speaker, it almost came second nature to him and from the stories Kakashi had heard about how much of an emotional wreck the blond boy used to be when he lived in Suna, the masked ninja would have to say that he had definately come a long way.

Naruto then led the party inside and set the young child down in her white lace-lined crib. He nodded to Iruka who stepped up to the edge and performed a series of hand signs, his hands glowed a dull blue and he placed two fingers on Sakura's forehead, releasing her chakra.

"Welcome to the Uzumaki family, Sakura."


	2. Like Father Like Daughter

Alright I forgot to put this in the first chapter but I know for a fact most of you don't read them anyway so meh.

Okay first thing's first, I don't own Naruto or the Lion King and that's the only time I'm gonna say it.

Thanks for putting up with the delays and all that stuff, I'll do my best to finish this and make it... well flow as well as the other one granted it will definately be a lot harder.

And finally, this is indeed a SasuSaku fic and I understand a lot of you don't like that pairing but I refuse to chuck Sasuke in the mix with someone that he had absolutely no contact with in the anime as far as I know such as Hinabi, Hinata etc.

Anyway I hope you all enjoy :)

**LIKE FATHER LIKE DAUGHTER**

A young girl by the age of seven with light pink hair went rushing through the Hokage's tower with her two tiny arms full of ninjutsu, genjutsu and summoning jutsu scrolls. She balanced them best she could as she rushed through a large oak door and finally dumped them down on a big desk. She sighed in relief and wiped her brow of imaginary sweat.

Just as she was about to turn around and leave there was a very dramatized cough that could be heard from behind the mountain of paperwork she had just put on the desk. The pinkette sighed and walked around the side of the desk to come face to face with a blond man who had a frustrated look on his face.

"Sakura what have I told you about where you put things?" He asked causing the girl to roll her eyes.

"That to always watch **where** I put it." She replied robotically.

"Exactly."

"Daddy can't I go out and play now?"

"Have you done your chores?"

"Yes daddy."

"And have you -"

"Naruto?" He was cut off by the heavenly voice of his beautiful wife, who poked her head through the door.

"Oh Hinata!" The blond man exclaimed loudly and rushed over to her, picked her up and spun her around. Sakura watched with a small smile, she loved how her parents acted like they were still in the first stages of their relationship and still desperately in love, she hoped that when she was older that she would have a relationship like that.

"Mommy can I go and play now?" Sakura asked before her parents could start 'smooching' in front of her poor innocent eyes, granted she admired the relationship between her parents that didn't mean she wanted to see them kissing or anything.

"Hey, hey you can't just go around me like that!" Her father exclaimed as he placed his wife's feet firmly on the floor. He turned to his daughter and suddenly lunged at her, pulling her inot a big bear hug that she struggled desperately to get out of.

Naruto eventually released the little girl who quickly ran to hide behind her mother who only giggled and pet the girl's head.

"Let her go out and play, Naruto." Hinata stated almost shyly, the blond sighed and crouched down so he was eye level with his daughter who had come out of hiding from behind her mother's leg with a wide grin on her face.

"Alright Sakura you can go play but you must stay within the village walls -" He started but she cut him off.

"- at all times, I know. And if I see any strangers I shouldn't talk to them, come straight home or go straight to Uncle Neji's." She finished causing Hinata to giggle.

"Yeah, yeah, now go play will ya." He said while ruffling her hair.

"Daddy!" She exclaimed and tried desperately to fix the damage he had done and readjusting her ribbon before she started to leave the room.

"And you stay away from the bone yard!" Naruto called after here but sighed when he noticed that Sakura was already halfway down the hallway, he didn't take her eyes off his beloved daughter until he heard his wife giggling.

"What?" He asked innocently.

"Who does she remind you of, my love?" Hinata asked with her arms crossed, a wide grin on her face.

"What are you talkin' about?... Who are you talkin' about?" Naruto asked seemingly genuinely confused, it never occurred to him that he was ever too overprotective of his only child all he knew was that he didn't want what happened to him to happen to her.

"She's just like you were when you were young." the blunette explained as she wrapped her arms around her husband and placed a gentle kiss on his lips. He kissed her back before quickly pulling away with wide eyes.

"Exactly! Do you remember the dangers we put ourselves in? We almost got **killed** in the Forest of Death!" He exclaimed as he led her out to the balcony of his office where he could see Sakura rushing down the main road of the village, waving to those who she knew.

"You mean the dangers **you** put us in." She said with a laugh and lightly punched his shoulder and kissing him again. "She'll be fine."

With that Hinata made her way back into the office, Naruto watched her go as he graciously fixed his Hokage robes trying to look as subtle as possible as he signaled to one of his guards as he kept his eyes plastered on his wife's back, hoping to kami that she wouldn't turn around.

"You signaled, Naruto?" Came the lazy voice of his soon to be brother - in - law (or so he kept saying to him) Shikamaru who dropped down in front of him.

"You busy?" The blond asked while watching the villagers below wander about.

"Temari, Kankuro and Gaara arrived this morning." Shikamaru replied, not really answering the Hokage's question but Naruto seemed to know what he meant.

"Ah the perfect job for my brother, can you send Kankuro to keep an eye on Sakura for me please?" He asked, he didn't dare ask if Temari or Gaara could go. Gaara because he was too... well too Gaara - ish to be babysitting and Temari because she would just clock the blond on the head, tell him he was being too over protective and to let his daughter live her life.

Shikamaru mumbled something about it all being 'such a drag' and how 'ANBU leaders weren't suppose to be sent on such trivial missions' but he left none the less to tell Kankuro of his new assignment.

"You're kidding me right?"

"Nope, Hokage's orders."

"But I'm not even a shonobi from the leaf village! He's not **my** Hokage!"

"What a drag... but he is your brother isn't he and she's your niece?"

"... I hate you Nara."

"Whatever."

Kankuro grumbled as he walked through the leaf village searching for his little pink haired niece, he was sorely regretting accompanying Gaara and Temari visit Naruto now. He loved Sakura but that didn't mean he wanted to babysit her every single time she went out of the Tower.

'Like a princess guarded by a big fire - breathing dragon.' He thought to himself. He was jumping along rooftops using a basic element of stealth while searching for Sakura when he finally spotted the little girl making her way to the training area **outside** the village.

"Like father like daughter I suppose." He said to himself.


	3. One Sided Love At First Sight

Okay I know it's been ages since I've uploaded but here's the next chapter.

Don't own Naruto, Lion King 2 or... yea all that stuff

* * *

**ONE SIDED LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT**

Sakura may have been young but she was far from stupid, she had definately inherited her mother's intelligence. She knew she was being followed, granted she didn't know who it was but she new that it was once again her father's doing and she also knew that it would take a lot to lose her resident stalker.

Sakura stopped when she came across the training area and glanced around trying to figure exactly where her stalker was. It wasn't until she heard the tell-tale sound of wood transforming did she realise it was her puppet-weilding Uncle Kankuro.

Sakura jumped out of the way just in time to avoid being captured inside one of her Uncle's favourite "dolls" Kuroari.

"Ah you've been practicing, Sakura." Came his smooth voice and even without seeing him she could just tell he was grinning wildly.

"What is wrong with you Uncle Kankuro?" The pinkette screamed, in her haste to avoid being trapped inside his puppet she had ran up a tree like a frightened cat using her latest learned technique of chakra concertraition, her mother had commented on how quickly she had picked it up and went on to tell her a rather embarassing story of how her father had taken a whole week to learn how to walk up a single tree and even then he had been a good five years older than she was now at the age of six.

"Now young Sakura you and I both know that you are not suppose to be around here, you could have been kidnapped or something!" He exclaimed rather loudly while the young girl climbed down from the tree and readjusted the red ribbon in her hair.

"You're so stupid, I'm almost eight years old and I have Uncle Neji's brain. I can handle myself." She said carelessly.

Kankuro made a rather convincing upset face, had Sakura not known him so well she would have mistaken it for actual hurt. He put his hand over his heart, the hurt face not budging until he broke into imaginative tears (he claimed this act always worked on Naruto when he wanted something).

"That hurts Sakura, right here it hurts." He wept exhaduratively causing the pinkette to raise an eyebrow. She was about to call him a loser when a loud, confident voice beat her to it.

"Leave her the hell alone, Kankuro. That stupid act you put on only works on Naruto... although I'll never forget the time you attempted it on Gaara."

Kankuro visibly paled causing his older sister to laugh loudly and that caused a chain reaction of a typical sibling squabble giving the young Uzumaki girl just the distraction she needed to slip away from the scene and out of the village.

Sakura happily jumped, or more like skipped, from tree to tree getting further and further away from her village. She absolutely hated how her father had this obsesive need to control her every move and had she been anyone other than Sakura Uzumaki it would not have bothered her so much but because of her father's adventurous genes that flowed threw her she constantly felt the need to go some place, be somewhere and see something she had never seen before.

Just as that thought crossed her mind she came to a large clearing. The entire ground was covered in sand and it had large bones sticked up through it.

"Woah... the boneyard." She whispered to herself.

The area was at least as large as three quarters of her village put together. She remembered her father telling her about the war between their people and Orochimaru who had apparently killed her grandparents and many others. He had attempted to kill her father as well but as Sakura understood it he had fled to the sand country where he met with the Sabaku siblings who eventually took him in as their own brother.

Sakura was confused by the story whenever she was told it, how another country could simply be so accepting of a foreigner even letting him join their shinobi ranks. Naruto couldn't have even been an acception due to strength or ability because according to Temari he was extreamly weak and the only useful jutsu he knew at the time was the shadow clone jutsu (a jutsu that he still used frequently to this day).

Apparently the bonyard was once a battlefield for one of Orochimaru's henchmen, Kimimaru and when he fought her third uncle, Gaara.

"Wow this place is awesome!" She squealed to herself as she began to weave through the massive bone structure. She began to pick up speed and started sprinting through the structure, dodging different pieces of bone and the occasional sand mound that seemed to just pop out at her due to the closeness of the bones.

It was the blind running and laughing that got her so distracted that she didn't see him until she literally ran straight into him. The pinkette fell to the ground, on top of a soft surface and she blinked a few times trying to clear her head and process what had just happened.

"Hey get off me!"

Sakura looked down to come face to face with a dark haired boy with black eyes, he was probably the same age as her wearing a black, high collared t-shirt, white shorts and shinobi sandals. Sakura stared at the boy with wide eyes.

'Oh my god he's sooooo cute!' She exclaimed wildly in her head, completely oblivious to the strange look the boy was now giving her while attempting to push her off his lap. It wasn't until he pushed her so hard that she actually rolled off of him uncerimoniously with a thump did she come back to her senses.

"H - Hi I'm Sakura." She said with a tinge of pink in her cheeks.

The boy looked her up and down with a raised eyebrow, there was silence between them for a good thirty seconds before he turned and started walking away. Sakura gasped when she spotted the red and white fan symbol plastered on the back of his shirt.

He was an Uchiha!

"You're an Uchiha, right?" She asked before she could stop herself.

The boy slowly turned to face her with a sneer on his face and Sakura began to wonder if it was perminantly plastered on his handsome face.

"Yeah, so?" Was his stoic reply.

"I've read all about your clan and - !"

"I don't care." He cut her off and began to turn his back on her again when suddenly he was thrown backwards into Sakura, knocking her off her feet.

"Ow... ow, ow, ow." Sakura moaned as she tried to sit up, but deemed it impossible with the weight of the black-haired boy on top of her. Said boy groaned and began to push himself off of her when a bone-chilling chuckle caught the attention of the both of them.

They looked up slowly and came face to face with five ninja, all standing with wide grins on their faces and Sakura was the first to notice the Sound Ninja headbands at adorned their person.

"Oh no." Was all Sakura could say, she suddenly found herself desperately wishing she was with her father. He would have known what to do, he would have probably created a million shadow clones and growled, that would have been enough to scare them off.

"Can we help you?"

Sakura suddenly glanced at the young Uchiha boy before her, he didn't even seem fazed! It was like he saw no threat at all and was simply going to shoo them away and they'd leave.

"Don't look so smug, Uchiha! Itachi isn't here to protect you this time!" One of the ninja yelled with an angry look, Sakura could swear she **heard** the black-haired boy roll his eyes.

"I don't need Itachi to run you lot into the ground." Was the young boy's stoic reply.

Sakura didn't know what to do, this boy was practically picking a fight with five very dangeous shinobi. Naruto's words of warning for her to stay away from the remains of the sound ninja echoed loudly through her head, as did the words of him telling her to stay away from the boneyard and the Uchiha clan domain.

'Oh man did I really screw up this time.' She thought to herself.


	4. Tensions On High Powerlines

**TENSIONS ON HIGH POWERLINES**

"Um hey, I really don't -" Sakura tried to say.

"Dammit you brat! You're so going to pay!" One of the sound ninja yelled and before the pinkette could even blink all five shinobi were rushing towards the two young ninja.

Sakura didn't know what to do, being the Hokage's daughter she had never been in any real danger before despite her training. She stood there, absolutely paralized in fear, she was going to die and she was to scared to do anything about it!

Suddenly her vision, which was souly focused on the five shinobi rushing towards her, was interrupted and all she could see was the back of the dark-haired boy's shirt, the red and white fan of the Uchiha clan being her focus.

Before the pinkette could even blink, the black-haired boy had run head long into the five sound ninja and with a single kunai knife was fending them off the best he could. If there was one thing Sakura knew it was that shinobi from Sound lived up to their names, they used mainly bells and chimes, anything that made distinct melodies and they used their chakra nature to manipulate it.

Perhaps knowing this was the reason she saw it coming before the young boy had, one of the Sound ninja had managed to sneak up behind the boy whole the other four kept him distracted with constant taijutsu attacks. At the time all Sakura knew was that if she didn't do something, the boy could die. The sound of the bells hit Sakura's ears and she found herself rushing towards the boy.

"What are you doing? Get back!" He yelled at her but she completely ignored him.

Summoning all the chakra she had she focused it directly into her hands, it took more concerntration than she thought she had in her but she managed to do it just in time for her fist to plant itself directly into the fifth Sound shinobi's face.

An ear-splitting scream was heard and the ninja's face crumbled under her fist, she felt it splinter and break and he went flying backwards into his commrads. The black-haired boy as well as the four remaining ninja from Sound stared wide eyed at her.

Sakura stared in horror at the motionless body, blood leaked from it's mouth, nose and ears, the pinkette sunk to her knees, no longer having the strength to hold herself up. The black-haired boy snapped out of his daze and turned to the four remaining threats. He couldn't deny that the pink haired girl could definately pack a punch, but now thanks to the mental state she was in she would be no help. Her usefullness had expired.

"How - Oh that's **it**, Uchiha! First you die then your little girlfriend!" And with that the young Uchiha was rushed again, the Uchiha quickly performed a few handsigns;

"Fire style: Fireball jutsu!"

Suddenly the area was set ablaze, this gave the young boy the perfect opportunity to grab the still distraught pinkette and make a run for it, he said he could take them but this was one of the few times (more like a lot of times) where Sasuke had bitten off more than he could chew and had to make a run for it.

The young boy did all he could to drag the girl away from the battle but she just wouldn't move properly on her own and resulted in him picking her up, throwing her over his shoulder and ducking under some foliage and waited for the angry sound ninja to pass them.

When they were finally unable to hear the sound ninja, the young boy crawled out from under the large bush they were both hiding under and uncerimoniously dragged the pinkette out as well, dropping her hand the moment she was completely visible.

"If you couldn't fight them, why did you provoke them?"

The question came unexpectedly and suddenly causing the young boy turn and look back at Sakura with what he classed as a 'classic' glare but to his surprise the young girl was not fazed at all by it.

"What are you talking about?" Was all the boy could answer with.

"Just what I said; I thought the Uchiha clan was nitorious for being smart." Sakura knew she was digging a hole by trying to provoke the young boy but she couldn't stop herself, her mother constantly said it was her tounge that she inherited from her father the most and that was what got **him **in trouble the most as well.

"Shut up, you know nothing of the Uchiha clan!"

"Then teach me!"

The young boy stopped and simply stared at the young pinkette, he deffinately hadn't been expecting that, actually the more he thought about it the more this girl was different from every other girl he knew his age.

"Teach me the ways of the Uchiha clan. My daddy says you are all traitors and murderers... a dangerous group of people." Sakura didn't know whether saying all of this would plead her case more or not, she truely wanted to learn because there were very few books on the Uchihas and their specific traits and jutsus were facinating to her.

"You always believe what 'daddy' says?" The young boy taunted with a smirk that caused Sakura to glare at him.

"NO!"

"Bet cha do. Bet you're daddy's little girl." The boy mocked again. "An Uchiha doesn't need anybody we're strong enough to take care of ourselves."

"Certainly prooved that." Sakura threw back with a smirk of her own, if he was going to mock, so was she.

"I saved you didn't I?"

"Yeah but didn't I save you too?"

The young boy thought back to when Sakura's fist had pretty much destroyed one of the sound ninja's skull, he would never admit it but yes, this young pink haired girl had saved his life.

"I'm Sasuke." The boy suddenly said.

"... I'm Sakura." The pinkette replied while fluttering her eyelashes and Sasuke gave her a strange look, that was the look that every girl he knew gave him and he didn't like it. However he was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts when the girl, none too lightly, smacked him on the shoulder.

"TAG you're it!" She yelled and started running towards the foliage, however she stopped when she realised he wasn't following.

"Hello? You run, I tag... get it?" Sasuke said nothing only stared at her with a blank look. "What's the matter, don't you know how to play?"

The black haired boy stared again and Sakura sighed before another idea came to her head.

"Oh." She smiled and got into a sparing stance.

This was something Sasuke recognised and quickly got into his own sparing stance. Sasuke was about to launch himself at her and got no further than a few steps before he was intercepted and thrown backwards by an orange blur.

"Daddy!" Sakura yelled in shock the moment she noticed Naruto.

In return a silver haired man stood in front of Sasuke, round rimmed glasses adorned his face and a rather nasty scar went from his left temple, down his collar bone and under his shirt.

"Kabuto!" Naruto hissed at the man, instantly recognising him.

"Naruto." The silver haired man replied with a smirk, he then glanced to the side and noticed the Kazekage of Suna. "Gaara."

"Kabuto." Was the stoic reply.

"Hey, great to see ya again Four Eyes! Yano Kuroari is just itchin' to put another scar on that body of yours." Kankuro stated with an arrogant smirk, Sakura would have been embarrased had it not been for the seriousness of the situation.

She had only ever heard of Kabuto once and that was when her Aunt Temari had let the name slip while arguing with Uncle Kankuro about whatever they were arguing about. Naruto had given specific instructions that Sakura was to not know the specifics of the battle that went on those years ago.

"As I would, you, Kankuro." Kabuto said with a glare as he adjusted his glasses and Kankuro subconsiously covered a spot on his arm that was covered by his top.

"Well that's great that we all know each other but now I think it's time that you trapsed your worthless ass out our village, you slime!" Iruka added in a crude tone that he didn't often use.

"**You're** village? This village belongs to Orochimaru." Kabuto sneered.

"You were banished from Konoha, now you and the boy, get out." Naruto spoke up for the first time since they had arrived, he had always regretted letting Kabuto live.

"Oh have you not met Sasuke Uchiha yet, Naruto? He was hand chosen by Orochimaru to follow in his footsteps as the next Hokage."

Everyone looked to the young Uchiha who was trying his best to look brave but under the harsh gaze of Naruto and the rest of the leaf and sand shinobi that was there his facade was faltering.

"Like an Uchiha could ever be Hokage." Temari stated harshly causing Sasuke to glare at her.

"You know the penalty for returning to the village." Naruto said with as much authority in his voice as he could. He would not let the minion of Orochimaru intimidate him.

"But the child does not! However, if you need your pound of flesh... here." Kabuto grabbed the back of Sasuke's shirt and forced him forward, the young boy collapsed to his knees in front of Naruto and looked up at him with wild, frightened eyes.

Naruto glared down at the boy who was obviously trying his best to look brave but it was failing miserably. "Take him and get out. We're finished here."

With that the young Hokage put his hand on the back of his daughter's head and began to steer her away, Sakura glanced back as Kabuto was roughly doing the same with Sasuke.

"Bye..." She whispered.

"Bye." Sasuke replied, they both watched each other before their respective mentors forced them to look forward.

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To be completely honest I don't like this chapter all that much so I apologise if some of you feel the same way.

A little note, yes I knew a lot of you would have been expecting someone like Tsunade to take over as Zira but I reread my original story and it occured to me that no one knows what happened to Kabuto after the big war so I decided to bring him back.

Don't worry Tsunade will be in it.

Um... yeah hope you enjoy it :)


	5. We Are One

****I know you guys have been waiting AGES for this and you will probably be disappointed at the shortness however there is another chapter I plan on uploading straight after this one so hopefully that'll make up for it. ANNNNND I'm writing the chapter for after that as we speak so thanks for everone who's stuck by me.

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**WE ARE ONE**

Sakura hung her head low as she walked next to her mother and behind her father, his whole aura screamed disapointment. She hadn't mean to get into trouble with the young Uchiha, she was only hoping to be friends, she blushed lightly thinking about how cute the boy had been.

"Hey kid don't look so down, your father got into way worse -" Kankuro started but was cut off by a vicious glare from the blond haired hokage. The puppet wielder quickly shut his mouth and and backed up, only stopping because Naruto had stopped just outside the Konoha gates.

"Naruto?" Hinata asked but her husband only gave her a look, Sakura pretended not to notice the little smile on her mother's lips before she began to walk passed her husband and into the village, Sakura attempted to follow but was stopped by Naruto none too gently grabbing her shoulder.

"Don't worry kid, we'll send Shikamaru and Neji by later to pick up the body pieces." Kankuro whispered causing Sakura to pale.

Gaara rolled his eyes and grabbed the back of his eldest brother's shirt and began dragging him away from the frightened youth, the red head gave a simple nod to Naruto beforehand.

When all were finally gone Sakura reluctantly turned to her father and tried to plaster on that same smile that got her out of the time she had put a big 'KICK ME!' sign on the back of Iruka-sensei. But this time it clearly wasn't going to work, she had crossed the line and Naruto glared down at her with the harshest glare she had ever recieved from him.

She sighed in defeat and took a seat on a rock near her, looking at her feet with fake interest.

"Sakura what did you think you were doing? You could have been killed today."

"But daddy I didn't mean to diso -"

"I'm telling you this because I love you. I don't want to lose you."

"I know." Sakura sighed and glanced up at her father.

"As future Hokage -"

"What if I don't **want** to be Hokage? It's no fun."

Naruto moved closer to her and pet her head gently.

"That's like saying you don't want to be an Uzumaki, it's in your blood. As I am... we are part of each other. We are one."

Sakura stared at him with wide, confused eyes. "What?"

Naruto smiled and led her into the village, the young pinkette smiled back at him.

"Don't think this gets you off the hook, and I don't want you to go running to your mother either." The Hokage stated sternly and the smile on his daughter's face fell.

"Aw but daddy...!"

"Don't you 'But daddy' me young lady you're still in a lot of trouble. Your punishment will be decided when we get back to the manor."

Sakura groaned and trudged behind her father with her head hung.


	6. Lullaby Of The Damned

**LULLABY OF THE DAMNED**

Sasuke trudged along the familiar pathway quickly and quietly, only glancing up every now and then at Kabuto who had a look of pure annoyance on his face. The young Uchiha boy always got the impression that the medical ninja didn't like him very much and to tell you the truth Sasuke didn't like him very much back, but the youth's older brother had said that Kabuto was the founder and had it not been for him, the two brothers would have had no where to go when they were exiled from Konoha.

"Hey Sasuke!" A loud mouthed voice echoed through his thoughts. Said boy looked up and saw his young friend Ino Yamanaka waving frantically at him from across the barren wasteland that was their domain.

Standing next to Ino, leaning lazily against a dead tree was a silver haired man named Hidan, the look on his face clearly showed that he found the little blond girl irritating.

"Go, I'm going to get Lady Tsunade." Kabuto practically ordered and roughly threw the boy across to where Ino was waiting.

The young boy glared at the medical ninja before turning to Ino who had latched herself onto his arm and was trying to pull him towards the small training grounds that they were fortunate enough to have.

"Come on Sasuke I've just **got** to see this new thingy that you do with your eyes!" Ino exclaimed loudly. The young blond had been trailing after Sasuke ever since she first saw him five years prior, Sasuke seemed to either be oblivious or not care about the obvious feelings the blond had for him but he kept her around because she was kind and caring when she wasn't talking.

"Sasuke... Sasuke... Sasuke, man it's not like Orochimaru was his fucking father or anything jeez. He just took him in." Hidan mumbled to himself as he watched the young Uchiha begin sparing with the loud mouth that was Yamanaka.

"Reguardless, he could take you down without much effort." Came a cold voice from directly in front of him. Hidan cracked an eye open and came face to face with... well he wouldn't call him a friend because the constant death treats left little room for a friendship, however the man in front of him was the only one that seemed to be able to put up with the silver haired menace for more than half an hour.

"Aw come on Kakazu! Seriously you fucking think a damned kid... a **seven-year-old** fucking kid can take me on?" Hidan complained, it seemed to be his favourite thing to do, it used to be about Itachi but now he quickly moved on to Sasuke when the child was chosen to be Orochimaru's vessel.

"Lady Tsunade is not going to be happy that you left him out there on his own again." The masked shinobi said carelessly, his cold green eyes staring at the silver haired man as he took a seat on the ground next to him.

"Who the hell cares what that old bat thinks! It's about time the kid learned to look after his god damned self anyway."

Kakazu rolled his eyes at his partner's childish antics, out of all those who were exiled, Hidan was by far the least mature.

"Why don't you tell that to her... see how far you get." Kakazu suggested with a raised eyebrow and the younger, silver haired man smirked.

"Oh yeah? Don't think I fucking won't!" Hidan yelled as he sat up straight, giving his parter in crime the most sinister look he could muster, however it was quickly overshadowed by Kakazu's own sinister look.

"Yeah? Here's your chance."

At that particular point Kakazu desperately wished he had a camera with him, the look on Hidan's face was priceless as he slowly turned to face the blond haired, big breasted sanin who was angrily making her way over to them with Kabuto right behind her.

"Lady Tsunade! Hi!" Hidan's eyes were wide with fear as he tried his best to force a smile, he risked a glance over at Kakazu who, even with everything but his eyes being covered by a piece of cloth, was obviously smirking widely.

"You were suppose to be watching him!" Lady Tsunade roared in anger and she suddenly struck the unfortunate silver haired man with strength that could rival that of Superman, sending him hurting backwards and smashing back first straight into the tree he and Kakazu had been leaning against earlier.

"I - It's not his fault." Sasuke piped up when he saw what his leader had done to Hidan. "I... I went off on my own."

"What were you doing?" Tsunade snarled at him.

"N - nothing..." Sasuke replied while looking down at his feet.

"Who made us outsiders, Sasuke?"

"Naruto."

"Who **killed** Orochimaru?"

"Naruto."

"Who ordered your **whole** clan dead?"

"N - Naruto..." Sasuke stuttered as he blinked back tears thinking of his lost clan, had it not been for him being at the training academy at the time Sasuke surely would have been massacred along with the rest of his family. Itachi too had been away during the commotion and had found the young Uchiha in the middle of the street on his knees crying and screaming.

Itachi had taken Sasuke without a word out of the village and away where they united with the other exiled ninja of the hidden leaf. Itachi refused to talk about that night to Sasuke always changing the subject or even just plain ignoring him whenever he brought the subject up.

Tsunade had welcomed them with open arms into their ranks and had provided shelter and a job for the older Uchiha and had shown a forbidden scroll sealed with the Hokage's seal to him revealing the authorization of the extermination of the Uchiha clan.

"What have I told you about **them**?" Tsunade ordered, that evil glint never leaving her eyes.

"I'm sorry L - Lady Tsunade. She didn't seem all that bad, I thought we could be -"

"**Friends**?" Tsunade cut him off causing the look Sasuke had built up during his explination to falter. "You thought you'd get to the daughter and Naruto would welcome you back into the village with open arms! What an idea -"

Tsunade stopped in mid stride, her eyes went wide with realisation and she roughly grabbed Sasuke by the shoulders.

"**What** an idea! Sasuke you are truely the genius of the Uchiha's!" The young Uchiha squirmed when her grasp became too tight for comfort but that only resulted in her pulling him closer to her bosom.

"I don't get it, what the fuck is the old hag on about?" Hidan whispered to Kakazu who, for once, could only shrug his shoulders.

"Come." Tsunade ordered, specifically to whom, no one could say but she was forcefully dragging Sasuke by the arm so she was either talking to Hidan, Kakazu, Ino or perhaps Kabuto but reguardless every single one of them followed the sanin to her temple.

The temple was large but very rundown, much like their entire make-shift outsiders village. The temple was where Tsunade often dwelled, there were a few unknowns that had be rumoured to live their too.

Tsunade dragged Sasuke to the throne room where she uncerimoniously threw him into the large chair that was usually reserved for her. The young Uchiha coughed as the wind was knocked out of him.

Along all the walls surrounding them were paintings of gruesome battles that revealed Orochimaru the 'hero' he really was, the walls were also etched with many powerful jutsus that once belonged to their snake ruler.

"I now see the path to our glorious return to power." The blond woman said with an evil grin.

"But I -" Sasuke started.

"**Hush!** You should go rest my young Uchiha, you must be exhausted." Tsunade suggested in such a sweet tone that Hidan made gagging noises in the backround that went ignored by the blond woman. "Tomorrow your training intensifies."

"...Okay." Sasuke whispered before getting to his feet and slowly walking out of the throne room. The moment he was gone the sweet look on Tsunade's face was replaced with that of malacious victory.

"Yeah go sleep ya little son of a bi -"

Hidan's rude comments were cut off by a rock hitting him straight in the face.

"Ow what the fuck?" He yelled as he held his hand over his left eye, he looked up to come face to face with a red and black emotionless gaze. Hidan immediately shut his mouth, knowing full well he couldn't take on the older Uchiha brother.

"I trust you were successful, Itachi?" Tsunade asked the man and the dark gaze turned it's attention from Hidan.

"I was, Lady Tsunade." Itachi replied and approached the female sanin followed by his comrad who took the appearance of a blue shark, Kisame. The older Uchiha held out an old and worn scroll that bore the seal of the hokage.

Tsunade took it and held the scroll out to Kabuto, the only ninja that was close enough to Orochimaru to learn the hokage seal dispel. The medical ninja quickly, without word, released the seal and handed it back to Tsunade who unravelled it and read it over.

"Excellent work. This scroll will serve our new goal well." Tsunade said while getting up and walking out of the the large chamber with a wicked smile on her face.

"New goal?" Kisame asked as he heaved his large sword onto his shoulder with a raised eyebrow.

"Something to do with Sakura Uzumaki..." Ino replied to him.

"The plan will commence tomorrow, I advise you all to retire for the night... all except Hidan." Kabuto gave an evil smirk. "You come with me."

The silver haired man stared at the medical shinobi with wide eyes and backed up against Kakazu who only pushed him forward roughly with an evil chuckle.

"Kakazu!"

"Do what your told, Hidan. It's not like he's going to kill you."

"Not for the lack of god damned trying..." Hidan mumbled miserably before following Kabuto out of the room.


	7. Do This On My Own

**Well it's been a long time coming, trust me I'm aware.  
**

**Working on the next chapter, so please enjoy and another thing, I actually have Microsoft word now so im no longer using notepad, how some of you managed to put up with the appalling spelling and grammar mistakes is totally beyond me.  
**

* * *

**DO THIS ON MY OWN**

"Naruto stop fidgeting, darling." Hinata's soft voice carried on the wind as she linked her fingers with his; they were standing outside the Hokage's manor waiting for Sakura to come out.

Said man looked down upon his wife and sighed heavily.

"I just... what if she gets hurt?"

"It's only to Suna and besides she's a big strong girl now. She can take care of herself."

Naruto still wasn't convinced. This was his **baby** heading out on an A-Rank mission, after becoming the top shinobi in of her age, despite holding her back at the academy almost four years; he was beginning to run out of reasons as to why she couldn't join the ANBU team.

This was her final test to see whether she was truly worthy at his request. Most already knew that the eighteen-year-old girl was going to ace the test but when the Hokage insisted on something, no one questioned him.

"Look Hinata I just really don't think that sending my daughter after a known killer is a good idea." Naruto complained.

"It **was** you're idea, Lord Hokage." Came a voice from behind the blond causing him to jump.

"How many times have I told you not to sneak up on me like that?" Naruto yelled. "And yes it was but she wasn't supposed to be sent on an A-Rank mission **alone**! She's a support ninja she wasn't going to be on the front lines!"

Kakashi shrugged his shoulders and moved to stand next to Hinata and the blond Hokage sighed again.

Slowly the main door of the Hokage's manor opened and in its place stood his beautiful, eighteen-year-old daughter. Dressed in the tradition Konoha ANBU outfit and a mask of a fox sitting upon her head. The only thing really disrupting her image was her short pink hair.

"My how you've grown." Stated Kakashi the smile evident in his one visible eye.

"Thanks, Kakashi-sensei." The young woman replied, she then approached her parents.

"Sakura..." Hinata said before wrapping her arms around her now, much taller daughter, giving her a tight hug. Sakura hugged her mother back before slowly pulling apart and turning to her father.

"Daddy?"

Naruto, who had been looking anywhere but her, finally gazed into her eyes.

"You have to promise to let me do this on my own... promise?"

Naruto opened his mouth to protest and glanced at his wife who raised her one, perfect blue eyebrow at him. He let go a breath and smiled.

"I promise."

Sakura lunged forward and almost tackled her father in a bone shattering hug, he said nothing and only hugged her back, despite his unwillingness to let her go through with this he would always be proud of her.

They said their goodbyes and Sakura made her way through the village to the entrance gates where. She stopped briefly; only to pull out a map that her father had insisted she take that had the most direct route to Suna marked on it. The murderer had been spotted several times along the path; it didn't really matter since she had been going back and forth from Konoha and Suna since she was little to visit her uncles and aunt.

She looked up from the map and stared ahead at the path before putting the map back in her pack and heading forward.

She walked for a good four hours before stopping to rest and eat, her mother had insisted she take a well packed lunch that they had both made together. When she was done eating she packed up and continued on her way.

Her mission was fairly simple despite it being so close to Suna. To be honest she wondered why she was being sent so far away from her village and close to Suna, considering her Uncle Gaara had more than enough shinobi to deal with the situation. She immediately stopped wondering when she thought of her father.

She growled angrily under her breath at the thought that her father had arranged it all to 'keep her safe' but she had overheard a conversation her father was having with her mother about how she wasn't supposed to be going on this mission alone but Hinata insisted she would be fine and could take care of herself.

Her mother always understood her best, yes she was a daddy's girl, but when her father just simply couldn't understand something her mother would chime in and explain it in a way that would make Naruto understand.

The young pinkette was so caught up in her thoughts that she almost missed the telltale signs that she was being followed. She stopped and listened; by this time she had been gone from the village a good six or seven hours… was it someone she knew? The shuffling foot pattern was fairly familiar to her; she looked around in the now dimming sunlight trying to find the source of the footsteps.

She then thought that it could have been a bandit or even possibly the murderer she was looking for, she quickly pulled out a kunai knife and jumped off the beaten path into a tree.

She waited and watched as a man dressed in black, carrying a large pack on his back with a wide straw hat on his head that covered his face, shuffled by.

Sakura shook her head and watched the man walk by; her father wouldn't send people to follow her, not after promising to let her do it on her own.

"Hey girlie, what the hell are we hidin' from?"

The voice was so close to her ear she didn't know how the person had possibly gotten so close without her knowing.

She slowly turned her head to the side and came face to face with the murderer she was supposed to be hunting down, he had slicked back silver hair, purple eyes and a large triple-blade scythe strapped to his back.

Sakura shrieked and backed up, her kunai at the ready.

"Hidan, I am here to take you back to the village hidden in the leaves so you can go on trial for your crimes against its people, specifically the murder of Asuma Sarutobi." She said it with as much conviction as she could muster but the pure sight of the guy scared her.

Hidan said nothing, only threw his head back and laughed before turning his back to her.

"You really fuckin' think that a god damned little girl can take me on?"

He laughed manically before drawing back his triple bladed scythe, aiming to strike when suddenly a large explosion interrupted his attempts to kill the young girl, the blast radius forced him to jump back several trees to the right, further into the woods and among the smoke, Sakura lost him.

The eighteen-year-old looked around to find the source of the explosion and saw red when she spotted her Uncle Kankuro and Iruka both in fighting stances, Kankuro with one of his many puppets next to him.

She jumped down from the tree she was in, glaring hard at the both of them causing them to look away, her Uncle rubbed the back of his head nervously.

"What are you two **doing** here?" She hissed angrily.

"Ah… um… we were just -" Iruka struggled hard to find an excuse that wouldn't out his Hokage.

"I'm helpin' him learn how to pick up chicks!" Kankuro suddenly chimed in causing Iruka's jaw to drop and his head to turn to the black dressed shinobi. "Yep, that's right Iruka and that's how you save the damsel… in… distress…"

Sakura was livid; she glared so hard at her Uncle that if there had been any kind of power behind it, he would have been dead or at least severely injured.

"My father sent you." She spat with eyes full of angry tears. "Even after he promised to let me do this on my own he lied!"

"No… he just doesn't want you to get hurt…" Iruka said sadly, he knew that this two minute moment was going to take Naruto months, if not years to fix.

Sakura furiously wiped her eyes of the tears threatening to fall and started heading in the direction that Hidan had set off. That's why her father was so insistent that Hidan was going to be on the road to Suna, the plot had nothing to do with actually intercepting the outsider killer and everything to do with the fact that she was easier for Iruka and Kankuro to follow **her **while on the main road.

"Hey, where are you goin'?" Kankuro called, fear in his voice.

"I'll do this on my own, away from the leaf village!" She screamed back at them before disappearing into forest.

"Dammit Sakura come back!" Kankuro yelled before both Iruka and he rushed to chase after her, but it was far too late, Sakura was either a good hider or a really fast runner because she was gone and amongst the pure density of the forest it was like trying to find a pink needle in a green haystack.


End file.
